


The Last Dance

by karaokegal, via_ostiense



Category: White Collar
Genre: Audio Format: MP3, Audio Format: Streaming, Collaboration, Community: pod-together, Multi, Podfic Available
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-17
Updated: 2011-07-17
Packaged: 2017-10-21 11:57:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/224935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karaokegal/pseuds/karaokegal, https://archiveofourown.org/users/via_ostiense/pseuds/via_ostiense
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Four takes on relationships.</p><p>THIS IS A FIC/AUDIOFIC COLLABORATION - NOT ELIGIBLE FOR REMIX REDUX (karaokegal did the fic, I did the audiofic.  If you have karaokegal as an assignment, check if she lists it as a safe story.  If you have me as an assignment, this story is not eligible.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Last Dance

**Author's Note:**

> A Pod-Together collaborative fic/audiofic by karaokegal (author), and via_ostiense (podficcer). A version with music and a version without music are both available. The music clips are from The Drifters' "Save the Last Dance For Me," and the tap dancing clip is from Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell's duet 'Begin The Beguine' in "The Broadway Melody of 1940."

**Music Version**  
Download links: [MP3](http://pod-together.parakaproductions.com/2011podfic/WC-Last%20Dance%20\(Music%20Version\)%20by%20karaokegal%20and%20via_ostiense.mp3)|[M4B](http://pod-together.parakaproductions.com/2011podfic/WC-Last%20Dance%20\(Music%20Version\)%20by%20karaokegal%20and%20via_ostiense.m4b)  
Stream: 

**No-Music Version**  
Download links: [MP3](http://pod-together.parakaproductions.com/2011podfic/WC-Last%20Dance%20by%20karaokegal%20and%20via_ostiense.mp3)|[M4B](http://pod-together.parakaproductions.com/2011podfic/WC-Last%20Dance%20by%20karaokegal%20and%20via_ostiense.m4b)  
Stream: 

 

_You can dance every dance with the guy who gives you the eye, let him hold you tight._

Neal is dancing around the apartment in a slightly deranged imitation of an old Fred Astaire routine, obviously more interested in his invisible partner than telling Mozzie more about the dinner party and specifically if he’d been able to get close to Adler.

Mozzie doesn’t fancy himself the jealous type. It’s not the sort of thing one can afford in their business. He’s been on the game long enough to know that all alliances are temporary, partnerships built on a foundation of lies and every lover is a potential mark. Even though does a good job of playing the cynic in his own head, it’s impossible to deny that things with Neal have gotten out of control.

It hasn’t been that long since the kid with the haunting blue eyes and deceptively sweet smile out-played him at three card monte and basically walked into his life. These days, Mozzie isn’t sure who was seducing whom, and whether his “protégé” is using him or vice versa.

Either way, Neal isn’t something he wants to give up, or even share for that matter, except in the line of duty as it were. He might have a romantic streak, but he’s a conman first and foremost. He’d conceived the Adler plan within minutes of feeling Neal’s hands on his cock for the first time. Neal was gorgeous and flexible and Vincent Adler was, to coin a phrase, low-hanging fruit.

Pimping is an ugly word and the rumors about Adler were just that; rumors, but it was the best chance he’d ever had to get someone on the inside. To accomplish that, he was prepared, if not actually eager for Neal to do whatever was necessary to get into Adler’s inner circle.

What he hadn’t been prepared for was that Neal would go all head-over-heels and gaga like a rube for one Kate Moreau. She was most certainly not part of the plan and Neal getting emotionally involved could only get in the way of pulling off the con.

Instead of talking about Adler, Neal is still fox-trotting and cha-cha-cha-ing while singing the praises of Kate. Mozzie feels like he’s getting sick to his stomach and it’s not just a bad batch of yogurt from from the Greek deli downstairs. He recognizes the symptoms of infatuation coming off Neal like a bad smell.

Neal is definitely in love and Mozzie doesn’t like it one bit.

 

_You can smile every smile for the man who held your hand ’neath the pale moon light._

“No!”

That’s pretty much what Neal expects and exactly what he gets, followed, but “Never,” “Over my dead body,” and “Absolutely not!”

“Mozzie, please?”

Neal had honed his pleading skills on his mother, who’d been pretty much the easiest mark in the greater Chicago area, and since then he’s managed to pocket the possessions and money of literally dozens of suckers, sometimes simply by looking them in the eye and saying, “please.”

Mozzie is having none of it.

“Hey! Do I have the word schmuck tattooed on my noble brow? Don’t try to con me, Neal.”

_Fine_ , Neal thinks. He’s not sure he can make it without Mozzie, but he _knows_ he can’t live without Kate. It’s time to be a man, as his father was so fond of saying.

Funny how thinking of the old man seems to put some steel in his spine. He can practically feel an extra inch of padding growing in his shoulders, Hulk-like.

“Either she comes in or I go.”

For a few seconds, Neal actually thinks he might have to walk away, but he’s been with Mozzie long enough to know by the slightest tell, in this case tension in his jaw, when Mozzie is giving in.

“OK. Having a pretty girl on the team couldn't hurt. Just make sure she doesn't try to do any housework. I have a _system_.”

Yeah. Like that’s going to happen, but it’s enough for Mozzie to save face and Neal has brought a souvenir from Adler’s private wine cellar as a consolation prize.

“A toast to the new partnership!”

He pours and Mozzie drinks, but he’s still not happy.

“I hate Champagne. The bubbles irritate my sensitive duodonem.”

“You love Champagne. It makes you feel like a big shot. And you’re going to love Kate, I promise.”

Neal hopes that just this once he’s actually telling the truth.

 

_But don't forget who's takin' you home and in whose arms you're gonna be._

Kate looks at herself in the mirror, just to make sure she hasn’t lost her face along with her money and whatever integrity and self-respect she’d had as recently as twenty-four hours ago.

Then she’d known who she was and what she believed in. Now? Not so much.

She’d known Adler was ruthless, of course. A man doesn’t make that kind of money without being willing to play rough. If she had to be a part of that, she could live with it, as long as she didn’t personally break any laws and, much as she hated to admit it now, as long as her P&L showed dividends, which inevitably got reinvested back into the Adler fund.

Besides, it was exciting being around a powerhouse like Adler. He was demanding, infuriating, charming, and never, ever boring. Believing he trusted her was nearly as thrilling as her dreams of what she’d do with the money someday.

Finding out that he was a crook, and that he’d been as willing to fleece her as any other sheep, was a devastating betrayal, but then finding out that Nick wasn’t who he’d said, that his name wasn’t even Nick? Her head was still spinning from that one.

The mirror confirms it’s her. Blue eyes and a small mole on the right side of her neck, that she’d had since she was a kid.

With her eyes wide open, she’d performed her first con just that afternoon. No slippery slope, not for her. She’s gone from law-abiding citizen to grifter in one easy step. Do not pass Go. Do collect forty thousand dollars and probably a wanted poster somewhere.

One more look, just to make sure. The mirror still shows Kate. Still the girl who’s had all of three boyfriends in her life, and until she met Neal, she thought that kinky was keeping on the lights . That girl is about to walk into a bedroom where two men are waiting for her, one of whom she loves with all her heart, but doesn’t know if she can ever completely trust again. The other one she knows for a fact doesn’t trust her, may not even like her, but definitely wants her. Neal didn’t say this was the price of her new life, but Kate got the picture the first time Mozzie looked up at her and said, “Welcome to the dark side.”

She’s never been with two men and certainly never had sex with someone she wasn’t convinced she was in love with and now she’s going to do both at the same time.

The weirdest part, the one that makes her question her very name…she’s actually looking forward to it.

 

_So darlin' save the last dance for me._

Peter thinks more loudly than anyone Neal has ever met.

All he can do is wait until Peter’s brain has crunched through all the data and come up with a response. He wishes Peter’s face would give something away, even if it’s disbelief or downright disgust. He honestly doesn’t know what to expect and Peter has no tells whatsoever.

Finally the Oracle speaks.

His first question is a factual one.

“All three of you? Together?”

“Mmhm.”

The next one is the FBI agent speaking.

“And this was completely consensual?”

“Mmhmm.” Well, there’s consensual and there’s the things we do for love and they’re not always the same thing, but that’s more than Peter can absorb right now.

“Why are you telling me this?”

Good question. Probably the best and the hardest to answer. Kate’s gone and something’s irretrievably broken between him and Mozzie, even if Mozzie doesn’t know it yet.

He needs Peter in his life and Peter comes with El.

Neal goes to hug Peter, just a friendly hug, the kind that says, “I trust you with my life and I’d really like to take you to bed, but hey, I understand about you and your wife.”  
That’s a lot to get into one hug and Peter’s stiffness indicates the message is getting garbled.

He pulls back, and gets up.

“See you tomorrow,” he says, trying not to make it a question.

“Yeah. Tomorrow,” Peter agrees. His eyes glance towards the stairs to the bedroom. Neal instantly imagines Peter and El together and tries to find a place for himself in the picture.

His spot isn’t there yet, but it will be someday.


End file.
